Category Archives: Toronto Maple Leafs

Not many expected Luongo to still be with the Canucks once the shortened season began, but you’ve got to give GM Mike Gillis credit for being patient in trying to drive up the price for the veteran goalie and not just giving him away.

While Cory Schneider is the starter for the Canucks, he’s one bad game or untimely goal away from giving way to Luongo. If that doesn’t happen, then sooner or later somebody will be desperate enough to give Gillis what he wants.

With all of the trade talk surrounding the Leafs and all of the transactions that they have done this week I thought that it would be fun to create a thread where all fans could get together to post on the newest rumors and moves that the Leafs could be about to make. Topics such as Luongo, Connoly and others are all open to discussion.

“I’m not going to give up youth for older players,” Nonis told ESPN. “We would trade a young player for a young player. But we’re not going to trade a bunch of young players or first-round picks for short-term gain. You can’t build a club that way.”

Bozak is 26 and after 2½ years in the National Hockey League is still trending upwards. He had 47 points last season and led Toronto centres with an average ice time of 18:50. Bozak’s value to Nonis can be measured on the transaction wire this week: the GM traded Maple Leaf centre Lombardi and waived the overpaid, overrated Connolly.

Nazem Kadri‘s lesson in how the NHL’s new labour agreement could affect his career came early Thursday morning when he arrived at the Air Canada Centre for an open practice the Toronto Maple Leafs held for their fans.

One minute he looked and veteran teammate Tim Connolly was in his seat in the dressing room.

The rumour that the Toronto Maple Leafs have an interest in trading for the Los Angeles Kings’ goalie Jonathan Bernier apparently will not die despite it being a terrible idea to move assets for the 24 year old. In the summer, Andi Petrillo passed along a HockeyyInsiderr (not the funny one, at least not intentionally so) rumour that the Maple Leafs made an offer to Jonathan Bernier which didn’t really make any sense because that’s not how trades work. Chemmy’s conclusion that it was likely a move to put a little bit of pressure on the Roberto Luongo trade negotiations with the Vancouver Canucks seemed right.

More recently, one of the last rumours to come out of the Brian Burke Era was that he was done negotiating with the Kings:

Sadly, it seems to have come back under new GM Dave Nonis. Although, you have to think that this is once again a bargaining tactic just like Gillis saying that he’ be happy starting the season with two starters and multiple holes in his lineup is just posturing.

Obviously, my reaction tilted towards abject panic that the Leafs might be about to part with some useful assets for a Bernier because he’s not an upgrade on what the Leafs currently have. There was some dissent on Twitter about that as they either felt he was an upgrade (he’s not) or felt it was better to pay less for Bernier than Luongo. I think it’s better to trade for a really good goalie than a bad goalie even if one costs $4M more and is signed through to the next Mayan Apocalypse. Especially for a team that can afford almost any possible cap penalty under the “Luongo Rule” moreso when the salary cap will continue to increase as evidenced by the massive outpouring of attention that training camps have received.

Outside the organization, another theory is that Burke was unsure about including Nazem Kadri in any potential Roberto Luongo trade. Reason? What if Anaheim decided to move Perry or Getzlaf? It’s harder to do it without Kadri in return. It comes down to priorities — if you do decide to trade him, who is your first choice?